Monday, April 1, 2013

March 2013 Review

Progress during March was limited. Mostly I recovered from doing so much yoga in February.

1. Move better - The yoga challenge wrecked me. I entered into this month exhausted, weak and sleep deprived. It wasn't until towards the end of the month that I started to bounce back. Lifting went ok. I worked on re-adjusting to normal lifting volumes. My strength is still down a bit. I opted to repeat last month's cycle and will add weight again in April. I started working on replacing my chin ups with pull ups.

Yoga had a few small breakthroughs.

- I realized after a year, I am still doing up dog incorrectly. I've learned to correct in once I'm in the pose, but I really need to figure out why I my transition from low plank leaves me in the wrong position.

- Low plank is also wrong, I'm just not sure how to fix it.

- Given the poor performance in such fundamental movements, I've decided to drop double yogas for now.

- I changed how I do bridge, by grabbing my ankles, and it's opening my back bends up significantly. Sometimes when I go into wheel, I'm looking at my mat instead of the person behind me.

- I keep working on landing my front foot between my hands, instead of behind them, when I come into lunges from down dog. My hips are opening as a result.

- I tried to follow along with Kino's intro level DVD. The last third of the last is just too hard for me. I cannot jump back or through from seated yet, and the class relies upon it. I am trying hard to resolve this.

- I tried a long, slow yoga class. It was even harder than the flow class.

April will be focused on keeping my yoga volume up, while preventing lifting from regressing at all. If I get stronger, that's just a plus.

2. Beat the internet - March saw some regression.

I ended up spending a little more time reading a forum that I would like. I was avoiding things I didn't want to do (taxes, for one). The internet is still pretty lame, but an easy escape.

Time boxing work went poorly during the first half of the month. One of our new hires did not work out, and that generated a lot of extra demands on my time. Once the release got out though, I was able to get back in control and resume time tracking properly.

3. Make my money work - A few small steps forward here

- My cat needs to be groomed twice a year, costing $75 each time. The cat hates it. I got a pair of clippers and started learning how to do it myself. Highly entertaining, easier on the cat and eventually will end up saving me money. The cat looks dumb right now, but I'm ok with that.

- I started working on eliminating the fake food from my diet. I rely heavily on pre-made protein drinks, cliff bars, GUs, fake meat, seitan, and soy jerky. It's all heavily processed, not that good for me and expensive. I have stopped buying these crutches and am working on switching them out for real food.

Otherwise not much happening here. April will be more of the same.

4. Socialize - I managed to fill my calendar. Lunch with friends and coworkers, a couple parties, some yoga and some time with family. April is looking rather light so far, I need to do something about that.

Doing so much yoga in February was a mistake. I paid for it this month, but think I am well positioned for progress in April.